calling in "sick"

10-6-99

I called in headachy to work today. You might think that I would stay in on this, the birthday of my online journal, and write an elaborate entry, something commemorative, or do a redesign of my site (that's coming on the weekend.) You'd think I might at least stay in bed with an actual headache. But no! I took the opportunity of my "headache" to sleep in, play Nintendo, relax, play tennis, go to the mall, and hang around the house with my husband.

After I called in and before I went back to sleep, I talked myself into a little bit of a headache. It didn't stick. Not counting that hour or so when I was awake, between 6:30 and 7:30, I slept 12 hours, from 10 last night to 11 today. See, I wasn't planning to call in today. I did have a too-much-sleep headache when I dragged myself out to the couch, but that one didn't stick, either.

One not-so-good thing: we played tennis in the sun. I'm going to go back to work after a sick day with sunburned cheeks. Doh.

It's amazing what an unplanned day off does for the soul. I'm not even dreading going back tomorrow. Well, not too much, anyway. I don't enjoy my regular days off because I'm so sick with dread at the thought of returning. It's sort of like a snow day back in Michigan. It was so great to go back to bed, knowing that my homework was done already and that I had a completely free day. Or that I had an extra day to finish my homework. (I was one of those kids who always turned in the homework, but it wasn't always finished. I lived for partial credit. I just hated not having anything to turn in, so if I had an extra day, I DID work on my homework. I know, what a dork....)

We played tennis twice today. We went first around 4, and ended up on the middle court, so there were people playing on either side of us. That position sucks, because you have to be super careful not to let too many balls escape. You end up interrupting a lot of points. I hit a couple into the side court, then I got all self-conscious and tense and I just hit more and more outside and we finally left after only a half an hour. After sitting around on the couch for a long time, we felt fat and gross, so we went BACK to the court. This time there was only one other game going on, so we finished a whole set before we got tired and went home.

Only two more days of work this week! I'm so excited. I'm a little too excited about getting out of there. I'm coming dangerously close to breathing down the neck of the music store guy who's thinking about hiring me. He should have gotten my resume early this week, so is Friday too early to call him? Thursday? I don't have to wait till Monday, do I?

The sooner I find out about my new job, the sooner I can quit, take a few days off, and start again. The days off are important, right—doesn't everyone take days off in between jobs? John and I got another installment of the wedding gift from my parents so we're sort of rolling in money right now. We'll eat it away slowly on much-needed car repairs and mutual fund boosters, but right now I can afford to do things like call in "sick."

********A whole freaking year I've been writing this journal. I rock********

Now that October's begun, the pre-Christmas gift-ban is in place. John and I are not allowed to buy cool stuff for ourselves in case the other decides to get that for a Christmas present. I made it October 1st. I know, it's early, but there are Christmas displays in the stores already anyway. I love the holidays—don't tell anyone, but I liked working in retail over the holidays. People are generally in pretty good moods, in the grocery store, anyway. They come in knowing they're going to wait in line, and most of them don't ruin the festive mood by being jerks. I like it that Christmas starts early in the mall. I like Christmas. It's going to be very strange this year.

1. No snow.
2. No Mom and Dad. They're planning to spend the holiday at home, with my brother, and then they're driving south to spend a week in Florida, stopping here for a day or two.
3. No grocery job. (barring a cash emergency.) Maybe it won't be so much fun when I'm waiting in line, instead of making the line go away.
4. Cooking Ukrainian shit by myself. (My grandmother was first generation.) My dad has carried on the tradition of the little crispy fried-dough cookies and the ones called "nut horns," and my mom, who isn't Ukrainian, is a pierogi queen. As far as I can remember, we've had a variation on the traditional 12-course Christmas Eve dinner. (Our variation includes only two or three courses—ha ha.) I'm planning to attempt those things by myself, maybe cooking for our friends here, but who knows if my kitchen can handle them.

Anyway. I love Christmas. It should be okay. I've been a Georgia optimist all week, ever since the weather turned beautiful and I realized it's going to stay beautiful for the next six months. Sure, all you Georgians can tell me how cold it gets in January. Let me tell you about three feet of snow over a sheet of ice with a –20 wind chill. Beautiful it's going to be.

Today's Very Nice Thing About Georgia: Peach State Public Radio. It kicks Michigan Radio's ass.